Vista, meet Ubuntu

March 13, 2010 4:57 PM

How can I connect my Linux laptop and my Vista desktop?

I have a laptop running Ubuntu and a desktop running Vista Home Premium. My printer is connected to the desktop. The desktop is connected to my router by a wired connection, the laptop connects wirelessly.

Ultimately, I'd like to share files between the two machines and allow my laptop to share the printer.

My knowledge of Windows is substantially higher than my knowledge of Ubuntu, so I've struggled to figure this out on my own...any help would be greatly appreciated!

posted by nayrb5 to computers & internet (7 answers total)

Linux supports windows file and printer sharing. The Linux implementation is called Samba. Instructions for setting it up here.
posted by limon at 5:16 PM on March 13, 2010

Connect the printer to the router, use network printing in windows and linux.

Connect to the other machine's files using Samba, and want ssl or vnc if you want to run stuff on one machine from the other.
posted by orthogonality at 5:18 PM on March 13, 2010

Printers: Set your Vista box to have a computer name, and set the printer up to share (SMB/CIFS style). In Ubuntu, go to Places -> Network and find your desktop, and the printer should be there. It's trivial to set up really.

File Sharing: SMB is one way, and probably the easiest to share files off Vista, but the easiest way to share files off of Ubuntu is openssh-server, and then install winSCP on the Vista box. This is TCP based, so you can use IP addresses but if you can set up hostnames that will help a bunch.
posted by pwnguin at 5:47 PM on March 13, 2010

SMB is not one way. You can set up a SMB share from your Linux machine and one from the Vista box and each will be able to access the other. This is definitely easier (and native) than winSCP on Vista.
posted by ish__ at 7:24 PM on March 13, 2010

The day after, I'm seeing I've misinterpreted pwnguin's response. SMB is one way of doing the job. I still maintain winSCP is much work though.
posted by ish__ at 5:45 AM on March 14, 2010

Thanks for all of the great answers -- after months of reading online advice, I've finally managed to get it to work!
posted by nayrb5 at 10:07 AM on March 14, 2010

Ritual sacrifice of a goat often helps in a pinch.
posted by yeoldefortran at 12:11 PM on March 14, 2010